Lawrence Wong to make maiden visit to India as DPM

FINANCE minister Lawrence Wong will make his first official visit to India in his new capacity as deputy prime minister from Saturday (Sep 17) to Sep 21, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced on Friday.

He will arrive in New Delhi, where he will participate in the inaugural India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, before travelling to Gujarat on Sunday, where he will meet the state’s chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, and visit the Gujarat International Finance City.

The Gujarat International Finance City is India’s bid at building a global financial and IT services hub, the first of its kind in the country. The city is planned on 886 acres of land with 62 million square feet of built-up area in the state, which sits on the western coast of India.

The roundtable on Sep 17 is a new ministerial platform between Singapore and India, which seeks to deepen existing cooperation and identify opportunities for “mutually-beneficial collaboration in new and emerging areas”, the PMO said. 

Wong is expected to meet some senior Indian leaders and personalities at the event, which he will attend with Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, and Transport Minister and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran.